From the Authors

The series focuses on a wide range of fun and fascinating topics. Among the subjects tackled are the latest developments in technology, including trends in video games, virtual reality, and online music streaming services. Elsewhere, topics related to the natural world and environmental issues are also featured. Sports, travel, and lifestyle are also on the agenda and for fans of history and culture, there is plenty to get excited about. For each of the readings, a Reading Skill section is included, introducing key strategies for dealing with different texts. These spotlights give students invaluable pointers on methods that can be used before, during, and after reading a text. They include well-known techniques such as skimming and scanning and more abstract approaches, such as visualizing and making hypotheses. Rounding off each unit is a unique 21st Century Skills section. The skills introduced here fall into four categories that have been identified as key to the progress of young learners in the modern world. They include Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, and Critical Thinking. Each skill involves a fun practical exercise that encourages teamwork and gets students interacting in pursuit of a common goal.

The series features various types of readings, such as web and magazine articles, biographies, short stories, journal entries, essays, news reports, folk tales, letters, advertisements, and works of literature. Each reading contains extensively researched facts and insights into contemporary and historical topics students will find informative, entertaining, and engaging. Each reading also includes a certain targeted vocabulary builder, which will enhance the students'vocabulary by teaching them about certain mechanics of English words and parts of speech. Some examples of those vocabulary builders featured in the series are various prefixes and suffixes, adjectives, collocations, root words, negative adverbs, synonyms, antonyms, intensifiers, and many more. In addition, each unit ends with a carefully researched Did You Know section, which will show students a different or lighter side of each of the topics presented, examining it from an angle they might not otherwise have considered or been aware of.